Union SLU Apartments — Local services in Seattle

The first thing I have to declare is that my evaluation is for Seattle Vacasa (urban and rustic). Seattle Vacasa may have rented some rooms in the Union SLU and rented out as a self-service hotel. This has led to a series of problems. It must be acknowledged that the location of the Seattle Vacasa is very good, the price is relatively low, the room is large enough, the kitchen is fully equipped, and the washing machine and dryer are very convenient for home use. But Seattle Vacasa (urban and rustic) check-in, parking, and feedback are enough to obliterate the above advantages. We are booking the Seattle Vacasa (urban and rustic) on BOOKING. On the BOOKING introduction page, there is a beautiful picture of the hotel lobby, which makes us mistakenly think that there are hotel staff. However, before the official check-in, Seattle Vacasa (urban and rustic) sent us a check-in email telling us how to get the door card and how to park it. At this time, the room fee has been paid and cannot be cancelled. The description of the door card in the mail is as follows: "The lockbox is located on the gold wall in the loading dock area off of Dexter Avenue, at the far right side of the building." We arrived at the hotel at 8pm and it took nearly two hours to find the door card. During this period, I turned to the tenants and visitors of Union SLU and showed the check-in mail. They were very enthusiastic to help us find the lock box, but they did not find it. Finally, we turned to the Indian security guard of Union SLU. He didn't know the lock box position of Vacasa , but he went to ask Union SLU manager Tina. Fortunately, Tina informed the specific location of the lock box. The security took us to get the door card. . The lock box is located at the innermost entrance of the Union SLU tenant parking garage. The mark on the ground is marked by Vacasa, but it is very difficult to find at night. All my attention is looking for the "Gold Wall". The wall is only about 15 Centimeter wide. In the 2 hours of looking for the door card, we dialed two calls for Seattle Vacasa, one phone could not be connected, and the other phone was always a voice service. Then we called BOOKING for help. BOOKING response was to send us a Chinese translation of the Seattle Vacasa check-in email. After solving the problem of the door card, we have to parking , the mail says: "The quantity of dedicated parking spaces is: 1, including 1 in the garage. Parking Notes: COMPACT CARS ONLY. This garage has very tight spaces. Height limit Is 6'7". Unassigned parking in the garage off of Aloha Street. "And the Vacasa notice in the lobby of the hotel is:"Park in the Parking Garage off of ALOHA Street. DO NOT PARK In the park garage below the lockbox wall." These two contradictory messages made us more confused, and the ALOHA Street parking garage notice clearly stated that the vehicle could not be parked at night. Finally we parked the vehicle in the underground garage of Union SLU And left a contact number in the car, and we were worried about the phone ringing for several nights after the stay. So, if you don't have a car, you are proficient in English, have a wealth of self-service experience, and are good at decrypting games, consider staying at the Seattle Vacasa, otherwise you will choose someone to stay...

I lived here for a year and had to recently move to Bellevue due to work. Otherwise, would have loved to extend my lease.

Union SLU was a fantastic place to live. Jeff Wildes, Jalen Desisto, Lex Servian as well as the on-site maintenance team are absolute superstars at what they do. All maintenance requests were served pretty fast. The leasing office is always there to help you out (it helps that they are open 7 days a week!) for anything and everything related to your stay.

I'll try to break down different aspects of my stay here.

Apartment: I stayed in a Bristol floorplan and it was so spacious for a 1B (~800sq.ft). Easily the biggest I have seen on the market with a very reasonable rent.

Location: Very close to SLU if you're walking to work there. Super safe to walk even late in the night. Very close to Lake Union (2 blocks away) and to QFC (~0.5 miles) which make it ideal for basic needs. For people with cars, it is very close to Mercer Street, so you can easily get out from the Downtown madness and go into I-5 or I-90 or WA520 in a matter of minutes. This was a huge timesaver for me!

Parking: I LOVED the flexibility about parking in this apartment. You could get 1-day reservations and vacate temporarily (when out of town) and get back a new spot easily without tying it to your lease (which some other communities insist on, and make you lose a lot of $). The garage was safe to park in, and did not have any issues for the 7-8 months that I used it.

Gym: This is one aspect I wasn't completely liking with Union SLU. The gym is small - with very less equipment - and even if one more person is doing weights during your gym time, you will have to compete for the dumbbells. I hope they improve the gym soon - otherwise you're going to have to get a subscription elsewhere and spend ~100 bucks.

Community: There are a lot of fun meetups organized within the building to socialize. Found quite a bunch of friends here :)

Overall, I absolutely would recommend this place...

Stayed for 2.5 yrs and it is a safe building with quiet neighbors.

Pros : Good location. Bus stop right outside the apartment. Extremely professional and good maintenance team. Almost every internet provider is available in this building and comparable to other buildings on the same Avenue but better sqft. Jeff at leasing office is extremely helpful. Livly app for residents is helpful and the amenities are well maintained too.

The apartment is safe and good to stay at. I have had a comfortable and safe stay.

Cons : (Giving less stars only for property management team tactics of rent increase) Not good for long term tenants.

Example my own : I was paying 2225 for 1 BHK apartment and i was staying for 2.5 years. After all negotiations, management offered $2300 rent for lease renewal (intial offer ~$2500).

I knew that the market price is not this much for similar unit in the building and given we are existing tenants so our apartment is not going to be cleaned and the price in other apartment units in the same neighborhood.

I took decision of moving out (thankfully). Now I can see my apartment is listed on their website even after 1.5 month, at lesser price (right now listed at 2200) and with 2 weeks off and referral bonus.

So management is okay to give the same apartment after cleaning and losing 1-2 month's rent at lower prices and even discounts to new tenants but not at the same price to existing tenants.

I am sure this is not only with "Cushman and Wakefield" and more of Seattle wide propertry management issue but it was still disappointing. Maybe these people are really bad in mathematics or are trying their luck to see if existing tenants agree to pay higher rents just to save the...